A dark field. Click as soon as you see a bright flash or hear a beep. Ignore pale flickers.
Why it is useful
WAFV-style reaction is not a green circle. The job is spotting a real stimulus in noise: a flash, a tone, and plenty of near-misses. Clicking the flicker is as bad as missing the flash.
Beeps in a pattern. Click when the count matches the number on screen. The target will change.
Why it is useful
Not everything that matters in a cab is on the glass. You have to listen, keep a rule, and ignore the rest. The trap is clicking the old target after it has changed.
A page of dot clusters. Mark every group that matches the count for that sheet, usually four. Not three. Not five.
Why it is useful
It looks like a children's puzzle. Then the clock starts. Operators care because the job is checking the same kinds of thing, again, without drifting: a dense field, a simple rule, no story to keep you awake. Rushing invents fours. Perfection finishes a third of the page. The skill is a sustainable scan.
A marker runs toward a line. Click when you think it arrives, including after it has gone out of sight.
Why it is useful
Judging when something will get there is cab work. Too early and too late both miss. The hard version is continuing the motion in your head when you can no longer see it, including after a stop or a reverse.
Cab work is two streams. Dual-task tests whether the second job collapses the first. The wrapper feels unfair the first time you meet it. After a few runs, your hands stop arguing with your ears. That familiarity is a lot of the difficulty, and it is trainable.
The rule flips between vowel, even, and blue. Answer Yes or No each time.
Why it is useful
Staying on one rule is cheap. Switching costs. Operators need people who can drop the last instruction and take the new one without a lag that eats the trial.
A stream of letters. Was this one the same as two letters ago?
Why it is useful
Working memory under a clock. The cab is full of things you must keep and update while something else is happening. If the stream feels unfair, that is the point.
Watch blocks flash in order, then click the same sequence. One miss ends the session.
Why it is useful
Spatial memory, not digits. You have to keep a path in your head while the board is still in front of you. One miss and it is over, so guessing is expensive.
Study a procedure table, then answer questions on it. Easy lets you look back. Harder versions do not.
Why it is useful
You will be given rules and asked to apply them, sometimes from memory. Holding a short procedure in your head, then using it under a clock, is closer to the job than a trivia quiz about railways.
A short work scene. Pick the most appropriate response, then the least.
Why it is useful
This is often the first filter, before you ever sit a vigilance screen. They are not testing whether you like trains. They are testing your defaults: do you stop when you should, tell the right person, and avoid passing danger because it would be inconvenient. Silence is a common trap.
Six 'describe a time when' questions. Prep a real example, then answer using STAR.
Why it is useful
The interview is not a speech about train sets. They want risk, stopping, and a true story about a mistake, without swagger or collapse. Short true stories beat long invented ones.